Mountains in the Sun
by Neverland1heart
Summary: A new girl, age 17, has had plenty of trouble in her past. This is her last chance. Will Horizon be able to help her before her 18th birthday?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Frida sat in the back of the car. At seventeen, she felt old. Jaded. There wasn't much hope left in her after all that had happened. The little hope she did have she didn't want. Hope seemed to her a thing that could destroy a person. Wanting, needing, something that was impossible.

She took a drink of her Cherry Cola. Quite possibly that last soda she would have for a while. She knew the drill. She had been places like this before. She didn't know for sure what this place, Mount Horizon High School was like yet. She could guess the overall, but each place had its little details too.

The drive seemed to be taking forever. It wasn't that she was in a hurry to get there, but she was tired of sitting in the car and had started to feel slightly car sick. There had been nothing but wood out the window for a while now. She liked nature, but she mostly thought of the isolation that must be associated with the place.

She knew by now that these places could get away with pretty much anything. It didn't matter too much where they were. She had been places that were mostly isolated before, but also places right in the middle of a city. Just big buildings with more floors than she could be sure of, and no one outside bothered about them either.

She looked at her reflection in the window, a transparent image with trees all through it. Blond hair, a few inches past shoulder length and filled with random skinny braids here and there. With the trees reflecting from the outside and her own image reflecting from the inside, it looked like she was part of the tress and they were part of her. She like the idea. As if she were just wind or air or some intertwined matter.

The car stopped. They had gone through a wooden gate and into a parking lot without her realizing it. The driver got out and she knew if she didn't quickly follow that she would be pulled roughly from the car. The people transporting her were from the last place she was at. They were afraid she run away if she just went with her parents.

Frida got out of the car as the door was opened. She was handed her bag and she watched as a man came out of one of the buildings along with the driver. The talked a moment and then he got back in the car. The car started up and she took a few steps away from it as it drove back the way it had come. The man from the building was walking toward her now.

"Hello there. I'm Peter Scarborough. Frida, right?" The man asked. She didn't answer. She was so used to seeing new people that it wasn't likely that she would remember him past that moment and if he was just the intake person it didn't matter anyway. She found she usually didn't need to speak in these situations. Things generally moved along well enough on their own. Talking tended to cause problems and miscommunication.

Peter studied the new student. Her file said she was 17, but she looked more like she was 14 or 15. She had on eyeliner, a green t-shirt, black skinny jeans and black boots. Her hair was braided in spots but looked a little disheveled. She had brown eyes that somehow looked both hard and dreamy at the same time. According to her file, she had been through a lot.

"Welcome to Mount Horizon. Let's go inside so we can get you settled in." Peter said, indicating the main building that he had come out of.

"Hi." Frida finally said. Her voice was low and almost inaudible. She followed Peter into the building. The first room they went into was bare except for two chairs and a table off to the side. Frida was suddenly more alert her eyes were tense and looked a little angry.

"This is where we check through your things to make sure that there are no weapons or anything else that isn't allowed at Horizon. This should be easy since you were already at another facility." Peter explained. "If you will just set your bag on the table we can get started."

Frida gave up her bag easily. She was used to this too. He explained the rules while he checked over her bag and then he checked her shoes. Peter was right about this being easy, anything contraband had already been taken away from her way before she got to this new place. Frida felt a little uneasy when he explained that they would have to check her clothes, but he left and a woman came in to check through them.

Then a female doctor came in. Frida was numb to this. She didn't like doctors, but she didn't care anymore. So many had seen her lately. She sat quietly as her blood pressure was taken and her self harm cuts and scars documented. She answered questions asked with a simple yes or no.

The next part she liked less, but was also pretty standard she knew. She had to shower with a female staff member nearby and then they gave her a change of clothes from her bag. The only makeup she had on was her eyeliner, a parting allowance from the staff at the previous place she was at, and now that was washed off. No nail polish or anything other makeup had touched her for months. She didn't understand that. If people feel bad and are having problems already, why make it so they can't express themselves in healthy nondestructive ways like makeup? Honestly it could be seen as a form of self-care, so it didn't make sense to her. As far as she could tell, it was just to punish them for being sent wherever they were sent.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Peter sat back at his desk, tapping his pen and thinking. Any minute the new student, Frida, would come in after the rest of her intake process was finished. Normally he took this time after to talk to the new student and find out about them, but Frida's case was different. He doubted he would find anything out that wasn't already in her files if he took that approach. According to her files she had been in and out of different facilities since she was 15. She was close to 18 now, only a few months away. It wasn't long for him to try and help her.

This was the last ditch attempted. The facilities that she had been sent before were all of a more medical sort and were much more secure. The last place she had been, a counselor had made the arrangements to send her to Horizon and it had taken some doing. Frida's files were mostly the same across the therapists and doctors that had treated her, until the last two months of her most recent therapist. He suspected problems at home over a mental problem, though Frida had refused to open up.

There was a knock on the door and then Frida was led in by the staff member who had taken her through the rest of her intake. She left, and Peter told Frida to take a seat. He sat for a moment, just observing her before clearing his throat and looking down at her open file on his desk. He was at a loss of where to start and was scanning the file for inspiration.

"So, what should I know?" Peter asked. Finally deciding on an approach that put her in charge at the moment. Frida shrugged. She didn't know what he wanted to know. There was too much and from her experience professionals seemed to only want to hear what they wanted her to say, not any semblance of truth. There was another knock on the door and the doctor came in and handed Peter some papers before leaving again. Peter glanced at the papers in his hands.

"Why do you have bruises?" Peter asked. He was more thinking out loud than asking her. Frida just shrugged anyway. She had just come from a secure facility and the amount of bruising that her brand new medical exam showed were unnerving. "Did you bruise yourself?" Peter asked.

"No." Frida said, almost seeming to half laugh as she was saying the word.

"But you self-harm?" Peter questioned.

"Yeah, I cut. But I wouldn't bruise myself." Frida replied.

"Then why do you have so many bruises?" Peter asked again.

"Differences of opinion." Frida explained, sounding as if the question were ridiculous. Peter was hesitant to ask if they were between her and the other patients or her and the staff at her previous placement, either way he needed to show her things were different here.

"From your files, all the past places you were at seem medical. Horizon is different. There aren't locked doors. There aren't tall fences. Here we give you a measure of trust. To help you get better." Peter explained.

"I don't need to get better." Frida said making air quotes with her hands at the last two words.

"Your files mentioned a change in attitude lately. Now, I don't know you and files aren't always accurate, but from what they say until recently you were more… accepting of help." Peter commented.

"Really, I assumed they just said I was difficult." Frida responded.

"They say that too." Peter admitted.

"You know why? No one cares. They don't even know what is wrong with me." Frida stated using air quotes again around the word wrong.

"It says here that you are diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, which many professionals find… difficult." Peter said looking at her files again.

"Does it mention that before I was diagnosed with depression? Then they changed it to Bipolar? What about the fact that one therapist was looking into ADD until suddenly I got switched to a new therapist?" Frida exclaimed passionately, siting forward in her seat. It was the most emotion Peter had seen from her so far.

"You don't think your diagnoses is accurate?" Peter asked.

"I don't know. I'm not a professional. I just don't think anyone knows what they are talking about. I could have all of them or none of them or some of them. I don't really care. I am starting to think that people just put labels on things that don't really matter. I am just me. Whatever ever changing labels I seem to get, I stay the same, so I don't think they matter, at all." Frida explained.

"But you do realize at the very least that you shouldn't cut yourself?" Peter said calmly.

"Why not?" Frida countered.

"Because you are hurting yourself." Peter explained calmly.

"Yeah, right. Other people hurt me, and no one cares or calls it a problem. So, I am thinking that people are a bunch of hypocrites." Frida explained.

"Well no one is going to hurt you here. I see that you managed to get the keys and tried to make a break for it at the last place you were at. Before that, a series of ineffective escape attempts. If you want to leave here, I won't stop you. You'll just be sent somewhere else assumedly. So you might as well give Horizon a try. This isn't the same type of place you were before. You might like it here." Peter said. Frida shrugged. Peter opened his desk drawer and pulled out a blank composition book.

"Every new student gets a journal. Sometimes there will be assignments, but you can also write whatever you want in it. Whatever you are feeling. It helps not to keep things bottled up." Peter said handing her the journal. Frida took it, but by the look on her face you would have thought Peter was handing her poison. Peter looked at the clock.

"I've placed you in a group called the Cliffhangers. They are about to head to the dining hall. The head counselor is Sophie Becker." Peter said getting up and leading her to the dining hall. "Your bag was placed in the Cliffhanger Girl's cabin, you can settle in after dinner." He explained and pointed to the cabin as they walked.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Sophie watched the newest student. She was told the girl was a flight risk. Frida had skipped the food line, grabbed an apple and an orange from a nearby fruit bowl and sat down at a table at the far side of the room near the wall. After seeing the other Cliffhangers successfully through the food line, Sophie went and sat down across the table from Frida. She had eaten the apple and was peeling the orange, setting the peelings carefully on a plate.

"You can have a whole meal you know." Sophie said by way of introduction. Peter had officially introduced them earlier.

"I'm not that hungry." Frida replied. Sophie hadn't been able to talk to Peter about the new student yet. She hoped Frida wasn't an eating disorder student. She let it go, because new students often got some slack and the girl could very well have just been too nervous to eat much.

"What do you think of Horizon so far? I know it can be a little overwhelming." Sophie commented. Frida shrugged.

"I can't tell yet." Frida replied honestly. She didn't have high hopes for the place though.

"Well after dinner, there is free time in the cabins for a while, so you can get more settled then there is group. After that is lights out." Sophie explained. Since she was new Frida didn't know the schedule yet and she had found that sometimes even a little information could help new students feel more at ease. Frida nodded, and Sophie got up and went across the lunch room to give the girl privacy. Frida let out a sigh.

After dinner all the Cliffhangers divided into the girls' and boys' cabins. Frida seen her bag on a bed and went over to it. She hadn't talked to any of the other students. Before she had made friends easily at places she was sent to, but at the place before this, she had stopped trying. People came and went to frequently. It was nice to have friends and the ones at these places seemed to be more relatable than most, but she was tired of them leaving. Make a friend, they leave, make others, either you leave, or they do. She was worn out with it.

It was funny, because she didn't have any friends in her high school. She had been in a private elementary and middle school where she knew almost everyone since kindergarten. But they all went to various high schools and drifted apart. There had been no one at her local high school that seemed to click. She had a few people she knew, but no real friends. Then she was put in psych wards and residential treatment facilities and she actually had people that got her, and she got them. Real friends, but never for long.

So, Frida silently unpacked her few belongings and put them away. She felt awkward and was slow about the process. After she was done she didn't know what to do so she sat on her bed and pretended to read. She had 3 books with her: A Little Princess, Heidi, and a book on Norse Mythology. The first two were the only ones that had been approved books at the last place she had been. The third had been given to her by a male staff member one day. He was nice enough and she was grateful for the gift and that she had been allowed to keep it. The stories in it were better than most she had read, at least in a while. She had many of them practically memorized by now as she read them over and over. A Little Princess and Heidi had both been memorized long before then.

The other Cliffhangers girls were all talking among themselves. She was glad not to be noticed. She had picked Heidi, but she was too nervous to read. She stared at the pages until they were just blurred lines and occasionally she turned a page. It seemed like forever before they were called to group.

"As I am sure you all noticed, we have a new Cliffhanger." Sophie was saying after everyone had settled into the chairs that had been placed in a circle. This was a new room that Frida hadn't seen before. The buildings all looked the same to her on the outside, so she wasn't sure if she had been in this exact building before or not. "Stand up and tell us about yourself." Sophie directed to Frida.

"I'm Frida." Frida said standing up. She wasn't sure what else to say. Was she supposed to say why she was there? Was she supposed to tell about herself in general? She hated nonspecific in situations like this. She wanted to do whatever it was she was supposed to do, but she felt at a loss. There were a million things that make up a person and she was never sure which ones were suppose to be known, be said, be heard. There was all the facts, observations, and information in her files. But there were other things too. Things about her like that she liked the smell of incense because it calmed her. She liked teas and all the different tastes they offered. That like most teenagers, she loved listening to music, and had her favorites in that direction too. "and I got here this afternoon." Frida added quickly before sitting down again.

"Okay then." Sophie said. "Today's group topic is hope. What are your hopes, for the future, for now, in general? Auggie, you start." Sophie said.

Frida wasn't paying close attention. She was used to group therapy type things, She was used to various discussions. She was used to people, so many people that came and went, with so many names that she stopped even trying to remember them anymore. She was startled out of her thoughts by her name. It was her turn. She should have been thinking about what answer she would give or at least listening to what the others were saying so that she could know the type of thing she was supposed to say. Her mind went totally blank and she didn't say anything, she felt like she couldn't say anything. Sophie excused her lack of answer by saying something along the lines that she must be tired since it was her first day, and Frida was grateful for that. Group dispersed and it was lights out.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"So, tell me about Frida, the new girl you put in my group." Sophie said. It was after lights out and Sophie finally had the chance to talk with Peter about the new student. They were in his office and he had her file out. She was standing by the wall and he was sitting on his desk. Peter sighed and looked tired.

"Well, I have reread her files several times and they don't add up. It is frustrating. She had a lot of files. How did she seem to you?' Peter asked.

"Okay, I guess. New. You know how it is when they first get here. She was withdrawn, didn't say much." Sophie replied. "What is so strange about her files?"

"Her earlier files are from a adolescent psych ward in a hospital. She ran away, the cops were called, they found her at the park right next to her house, her parents said she was suicidal. She was gone less than an hour before the police found her. She told them she didn't run away. They though she wasn't in her right mind because she wasn't wearing shoes, just socks. The next day she sees the therapist on duty at the hospital, doesn't know anything about running away. She says that her dad through her out of the house and she wasn't suicidal. She self-harmed but she was already in therapy for that." Peter summarized as he read.

"So?" Sophie asked, not sure where he was going with this.

"Her files go on to say that she was difficult while at the hospital. Her main difficulty: she wouldn't admit she was suicidal or that she ran away. Paperwork the parents filled out say she was manipulative, social isolation, and that the dad was sure that she smoked pot a lot. Blamed the bad influence of a friend from school. All started about 6 months ago. Therapist writes that she doesn't have any friends, had been self-harming since she was 12, which is confirmed by another therapist she was seeing before then. No drugs or alcohol were found in her system." Peter read off, again summarizing parts.

"Wait was it 6 months at 15 or since she was 12? And if she is socially isolated and has no friends…" Sophie trailed off trying to puzzle it out.

"Exactly. It doesn't add up. They finally let her out of the hospital after she admits to being suicidal for a few days. But, and this is strange, when asked how she planned to commit suicide she didn't seem to know. After a few sessions she had more specific answers so they released her. After being about 2 weeks in a place with suicidal teens coming in and out." Peter explained.

"She lied so they let her out." Sophie realized.

"Seems like it. But it backfired. A little while later she is sent there again and readily admits she is suicidal. Seems to know what she is talking about now, but won't say why, after being pressured several days she finally says it is because of stress from school." Peter went on.

"Oh no. We know she lied on that. So what happened?" Sophie asked.

"That is the big question, because she was in and out of so many of these places and worse after that it is impossible to tell. She actually attempted suicide 3 times while at 3 different places. She got closer to succeeding each time. She had been diagnosed with half a dozen mental illnesses that seem like guesses, most likely for the parents insurance qualifications." Peter explained.

"It looks like we will have to start from scratch." Sophie suggested.

"That would be easier if we had more time. She turns 18 soon Soph, this is her last chance." Peter said.

"How did she even end up here? We don't take suicide risks." Sophie asked.

"Her last therapist eventually came to the conclusion that he didn't think the problem was in her head. He thinks it is her home life." Peter explained.

"It usually is." Sophie commented. "So, what do we do?"

"The main reason for her last therapists change of heart was that she was changing. Not improving, but it looks like before she seemed desperate, sad and then it changed to anger, which made him reevaluate." Peter said. Sophie picked up the file and glanced through it.

"She went off her meds. It almost killed her." She filled backward. "She didn't want to be on medication in the first place but the psychiatrist didn't believe her, though she was drug seeking. Manipulative just like her dad had said." She flipped through more pages. "It looks more like she has problems with impulse control than manipulation. Destruction of property, but only at the places she was sent. No outside record. She got good grades until she was sent to the psych ward, then they turned to Ds and Fs. How is this possible?" Sophie asked showing the page to Peter.

"I will have to call, maybe someone will know. That's weird. I'll call first thing in the morning." Peter said looking at the line Sophie was pointing to. "We'll need to schedule a lot of one on ones. More than usual. We don't have much time with this girl. This couldn't have been planned much worse." Peter said thoughtfully.

In the Cliffhangers girls cabin Frida wasn't sleeping. She hardly ever slept, even when she was sedated. Insomnia had been around her for as long as she could remember. The sounds were strange here and so were the lights. The places she had stayed before were so lit up. Always too bright at night. Now it was dark. The sounds were wind and other outside noises. She was used to the sleeping sounds of the other girls. It was strange not to hear staff up and around at all times though.

She got up quietly and used the bathroom. While she was in there she looked around for something to use to self-harm with. On the inside of the bathroom stall was a hook, not sharp, but she wedged it away from the door a bit and the part that was previously hidden had a metal edge. After a few cuts on her upper arm, she stopped and waited for the bleeding to stop. It hadn't been too sharp, but it was enough for now. Then she went and lied back in bed to wait for the morning.


End file.
